Occupants of dwellings and commercial structures have long benefited from the inclusion of a heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) system that regulates the temperature and humidity within the dwelling or structure. Traditionally, the thermostat that controlled this temperature regulating equipment was a fairly simple electromechanical device that would allow a user to rotate a dial to a desired set point. While the resolution of the temperature information on the dial varied from model to model, it is typically not better than two degrees, and is only indicated by a moving pointer on the dial.
Advances in control electronics have allowed the development of new, digital thermostats that may be programmed by a user to control the heating and cooling equipment in a much more energy efficient manner than the older electromechanical devices. These modern digital thermostats allow programming that can automatically set back the heat, for example, during periods when the dwelling or structure is not occupied, and can turn up the heat just prior to and during periods of occupation of the dwelling or structure. Indeed, many such digital thermostats allow for different programming options during different days of the week, for example, one programmed operation during the week and a different programmed operation on the weekend, to accommodate the different usage patterns of the occupants of that particular dwelling or structure.
While the advances that are being included in modern digital thermostats greatly enhance the users' comfort level and minimize the energy usage, the overall user experience interfacing with such a digital thermostat has not kept pace. Specifically, the sophisticated electronic programming and digital display provided by such thermostats lead consumers to believe that the displayed temperature reading is highly accurate. This is because, e.g., such digital thermostats provide a temperature readout that has a displayed resolution of 0.1 degrees. However, such a thermostat, while perceived to be highly accurate due to the displayed resolution, may appear to be inaccurate when placed next to or compared with another temperature sensing device. This often creates an issue for the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) customers of thermostats who receive numerous customer complaints about the accuracy of the digital thermostat.
To alleviate these complaints, many digital thermostat manufactures have reduced the resolution of displayed temperature. However, this has lead to other complaints that such a sophisticated thermostat should be able to display finer resolution for the temperature readout. Due to cost constraints, the thermostat manufactures only provide a single resolution for the same model of thermostat, with the resolution set to the lowest desired by all customers. That is, if one OEM customer desires the resolution to be set at whole degrees, all customers get the resolution set at whole degrees. However, while addressing one problem, this solution alienates other customers who want a finer resolution to be displayed on the digital thermostat.
There exists, therefore, a need in the art for a display system for a digital thermostat that allows the display resolution to be configured by an end user.
The invention provides such a digital thermostat display system. These and other advantages of the invention, as well as additional inventive features, will be apparent from the description of the invention provided herein.